The other day someone saw me drawing these figures as I watched people walk around the San Rafael Civic Center lake, and she asked me if I make art. I said yes and she asked, “As a hobby?” And with sinking heart—because I knew I was betraying myself—I said yes.

People don’t understand art or artists very much. I think it’s because neither fits neatly into our modern—capitalist—paradigm. In our world, people have jobs (or they’re jobless). People labor to create products or offer services in order to create capital—wealth—or they ‘don’t work’ at all.

And ‘value’ is too often reduced to its first two definitions in the dictionary:

1: the monetary worth of something : MARKET PRICE

2: a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged (Merriam Webster)

Gah! Too many people assign value to art by how much it sells for (capital), and too many people assign value to people by how much money they make!

Is art even a product or a service? Isn’t it an act of labor to create art?

(/ˈlābər/ 1: to exert one's powers of body or mind especially with painful or strenuous effort.)

These are big questions.

Here’s another one: “So. What do you do?”

I hate that question.

“Do you make art for a job or a hobby?’ Same question.

What they’re really asking—What’s your value?

What ‘s my value???

I don’t have an elevator answer to that one. Not yet. But I do know this. The value of art and art making is not simply economic as described in the first two definitions in Merriam’s Dictionary and according to the capitalist paradigm. There are more complex and nuanced—and human—definitions of the word ‘value’.

And maybe we will talk sometime about how I see the value of what I do, which is simply: I make art.

Cool Links

Art

As you can see, I drew 15 figures last week for the fun of it…now Tina inspires me to do another 90…it’s good to have a practice goal…

The World

Years ago I saw this video at the Monterey Aquarium about the truly miraculous sea fish found in the deepest parts of the ocean—and never forgot it! I want to draw them…but mainly, I just want to see them and reflect on the amazing creative mind of The Mystery.